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WES ANDERSON:
 “I decided I would like to make a movie in India, I decided I would like to make a movie on a train, and I thought I’d like to make a movie about three brothers. Then I asked my friends Jason Schwartzman and Roman Coppola to join me in writing the movie and we all went to India together.”
ROMAN COPPOLA:
“I’d never been to India so part of the appeal was a sense of curiosity, and then we went and it was very impressive, such a vastly different culture than any other place I’d been, so it was very thrilling to experience it.”
JASON SCHWARTZMAN:
“I think the three characters in the film are a good mix of Wes, Roman and I. But I do think that the three of us relate to Jack, because he takes things that have happened to him in his real life, he writes them down as short stories and then moves on, and that’s what in essence we were trying to do. We were trying to take things that had happened to the three of us, put them down into the story, and make a chapter out of it and move on.”
ADRIEN BRODY:
“It’s surprising, as it looks like there is adlibbing [in the movie], but that’s a credit to good writing and relaxed actors. I think Wes created a wonderful environment where the writing was succinct, but real and fun. Owen, Jason and I interacted very well. We were good friends, and we were all there for the right reasons and worked hard, and I think that shows.”
ANDERSON:
“We had written most of the train part of the movie before we went on a train [in India], so that train journey ended up with us acting out what we’d written as much as it was us researching what that ought to be like, but I think everything that we experienced found its way into the story one way or another, and primarily I think India went from being a backdrop for the story into being the subject matter on some level.”
SCHWARTZMAN:
“Oddly enough, I’d been so focused on the writing, trying to solve certain things about the script, that I forgot that I would have to act in it. I freaked out about seven weeks before shooting, because I read the script for the first time as an actor would approach it. I was like, ‘Holy sh-t, I have no idea how to do this, how to say the lines.’ I called Wes, who was already in India, and I said, ‘I’m freaking out, I have no idea what to do. ’ He said, ‘What do you mean? You wrote the guy, you know who he is.’ It was interesting, we wrote it together, but then all of a sudden the dynamic shifts, and he becomes the director and I become the actor. It was great how respectful we were of those roles.”
BRODY:
“I felt very honored to be welcomed into this family and this ensemble. It was like a theatre company, and I felt like being a part of that was a gift. Owen, Jason and I were on an adventure together, and that was beautiful, and I think that is very present in the film, and the fact that we were all going through this journey is visible.”
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THE CONCEPT:
